Tank:F87 Batignolles-Chatillon 12t
|History= The Bat.-Châtillon 12t, or the Char 12 Tonnes Batignolles-Châtillon, was a prototype French light tank. Post-War Light Tank Requirements After World War 2, the French military was in dire need of new tanks. As such, on September 1946 a draft was issued by the Direction des études et fabrications d'armement (DEFA) for a new light tank to fulfill anti-tank and reconnaissance roles. This draft dictated that the tank must have: * strong firepower * a weight of less than or equal to 12 tons in order to be transported by air * good mobility * a long operational range Further requirements came in later. In January 1947, it was decided that the new tank must be able to accommodate many different types of weapons, and soon after the decision to use an oscillating turret was made - specifically, the FL-4 turret made by the Fives-Lille company with a high-velocity 75mm gun. By the end of 1945, the requirement that the tank must be air transportable was dropped. The Char 12 Tonnes Batignolles-Châtillon By April 1947, four companies entered the competition to design France's future light tank: AMX, Renault, FCM, and Batignolles-Châtillon. The latter's prototype became known as the Char 12 Tonnes Batignolles-Châtillon, or Bat-Chat 12t. This tank had the following characteristics: * Length: 4.31 meters * Width: 2.4 meters * Height: 2.17 meters * Ground clearance: 0.315 meters * Track Width: 0.37 meters * Crew: 3 members * Armament: 75mm cannon with 1000 meters/second muzzle velocity and 40 shells * Motor: Mathis 7-Cylinder 8 GZ 00 with 210 horsepower * Maximum speed: 73 kilometers/hour * Operational Range: 240 kilometers * Slope-climbing ability: 70 degrees One should note that these statistics are either planned or tested a dummy turret. There are no known images of the Bat-Chat 12t with a proper turret, and it is unknown if the prototype was ever fitted with one. Cancellation The AMX prototypes won the competition with 5 prototypes built by December 1949, and entered service in 1952 as the AMX-13. In contrast, Batignolles-Châtillon's tank was not ready to be shown until June 1950. With the AMX prototype having been declared the winner, all development on and experiments with the Bat-Chat 12t ceased by September 1951. |HistoricalGallery= File:Bat-Chat_12T_prototype.jpg Only known image of the Bat-Chat 12T prototype. File:BC12t_history.jpg File:http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2017/14/1491742598-imgp8451.jpg |HistAcc= * The in-game Bat-Chat 12t looks very different from the single prototype: ** The hull is a different size and shape ** The tank has a completely different suspension. * The Bat-Chat's gun, the Canon de 75 mm Vo 1000 m/s, was an earlier version of the 75 mm SA50 used by the AMX 13. Despite that, the SA50 vastly underperforms compared to its prototype version. * The in-game Bat-Chat 12t is based on the Bat-Chat anti-aircraft tank 12t,an anti-aircraft tank without oscillating turret and equipped with 4 automatic 30 mm cannons. |Ref_references= |Ref_sources= |Ref_links= * https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMX-13 * https://ritastatusreport.live/2017/01/23/supertest-wz-132-hkw-12-bat-chatillon-12t/ Anonymous comment noting when the Bat-Chat 12t was revealed as well as the discrepancies regarding the tank's top gun }}